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Global health disruptors

With global governance and global health at a turning point, it seems apt to use the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute to look back at global health disruptors of the past two decades and to look forward at what will shape global health in the future.

This collection of articles looks at major disruptions that have shaped global health to make it the field it is today, before moving on to look at major disruptions under way at present that are radically changing the face of contemporary global health. Each piece pinpoints the nature, immediate effects, and long term impact of each disruption.

Global health is beginning to experience the effect of a world that is more multipolar, less multilateralist, and more ideological. Any one of these issues has the potential to be a disruptive force for global health, let alone all of them together. The challenge ahead lies in accepting these disruptions as being collective problems that require solidarity and a global response, and ensuring for the future that the UN and other multilateral institutions are prepared to deal with interconnected challenges and systematic breakdowns. These disruptions—and not viruses or diseases—are the threats that should keep us awake at night.

Climate changeReducing our use of fossil fuels will lead to a healthier society, says Jonathan A Patz

These articles are part of a series commissioned by The BMJ based on ideas discussed with members of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute. The BMJ retained full editorial control over external peer review, editing, and publication. Article handling fees (including printing, distribution, and open access fees) were funded by the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute.

The series was launched at a meeting hosted by the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute in December 2018, celebrating the first 10 years of the Global Health Centre since its creation in 2008.

All articles in this supplement are published as Open Access, and distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial.